A while back (I am not good at time), our next-door neighbor asked me if I knew what was causing their small patches of brown in the grass. She was of the opinion it was the drought. I said I would ask the lawn service technician when he came by. He did come by, and as a favor to me, he looked at their soil, and said in his opinion it was "brown patch", which is caused by small bugs in the soil. I reported back to the neighbor, who scoffed at that, saying "... what bugs? I don't see no stinkin' bugs! They just want to charge more money!" Well ... hmmm ... looks to me like it ends at the property line. They have been watering this patch quite a lot and now it is a damp brown patch.

In other lawn news, we have had marauding armadillo gangs in our neighborhood. The lawn service technician came by today and said today's application will get rid of the grubs the armadillos are digging up. I believe him! I am now convinced that we are in good hands.

The videoin this article is very elementary, but the discovery is important: a second pulse of energy from a solar flare, which is far more powerful than the original flare, sending huge amounts of UV radiation into our upper atmosphere. The effect is the same as what I learned about in grade school: disruption of electronic communications of various kinds. But I am betting that as they continue to study these double whammies, they will find other effects. We know very little about our very own Sun!

Friday, September 16, 2011

Look at this picture. I have seen it a few times, but suddenly tonight I notice the moon. The sun is setting on the right, and the crescent moon is illuminated on the left. IMPOSSIBLE. The lighted side of the moon always faces the sun.

Sal's Seaside Village is always changing and today I went to the lighthouse on my way through, while searching for his new place, the Bluestone Cafe. Apparently it is not built yet. I wanted to see Osprey but she was incommunicado.

Thursday, September 01, 2011

The drought is good for something, namely drying clothes. They smell SO GOOD! I tumble the clothes on air fluff in the dryer to take out the stiffness of air drying, but otherwise this is a low-tech affair. Notice my People Towels hanging there.